If it were up to me, I'd be out walking every single day when I'm on holiday, especially if we're in a coastal location as I'm absolutely, hopelessly addicted to sea views. Luckily for me, the Little People have had a lifetime of walking practice and are very happy to stride out so long as there is food involved and the promise of refreshments along the way.
I expect you can tell from the postcards I've been sharing this week that the weather so far has been an absolute treat. We've felt ever so lucky to have endless blue skies and hot sunshine for our holiday week - the temperature has been around 21 degrees each day which suits me down to the ground. I do really love having the sun warming my bones.
We set out yesterday morning to do a circular walk directly from the caravan, heading up and away from the sea for the first part of the route.
The non-stop coastal views were soooooo good! In the above photo you can see the coast road which we've been driving on every day. It's ridiculously scenic, with far reaching views all the way along the south west Dorset coast to Devon.
The footpath took us up onto the South Dorset Ridgeway where we stopped a while at the trig point to rest. We had a 360 degree view from up here, it was absolutely spectacular.
Ah look, can you see that cute little building on the top of the hill overlooking the lagoon? That's where we're heading to, it's St. Catherine's Chapel.
We need to start our descent now, down across the fields.....
....down along this sun dappled leafy track.....
...and into the picturesque little village of Abbotsbury.
St Catherine's Chapel is another one of the places that the Little People were happy to go to because they have such strong memories from our many, many visits here over the years. It's a very peaceful, atmospheric place and as is our tradition, we ate a picnic lunch resting against the old, sun-warmed walls of the chapel.
After our lunch it was time to head down hill again, making our way directly to the shingle beach. You can see the Little Peeps in the above photo walking waaaay ahead of J and me, they get on very well and for most of the walk they kept up a non stop chatter.
It's 1pm now and we've reached the beach a little bit hot and in need of refreshment. Thank goodness for the tiny little kiosk at the beach car park where we could buy ice lollies......oh, lemonade lollies are just the best on a hot sunny day!
Time to start walking along the footpath which runs all along Chesil Beach, heading back towards the village where our caravan is.
We saw so many gorgeous wild coastal plants and flowers along this stretch of the beach. These strange pointy flower buds were everywhere.....
.....loads and loads of them. I thought at the time that they looked like onions or leeks that have gone to seed, and I was pretty spot on as I found out that they are in fact wild sea leeks. I bet they'll look amazing when those flower buds burst into bloom.
I do know the names of some popular coastal flowers...the ones above are Sea Campion....
...and these glorious pale pink flowers are Sea Thrift.
It was amazing to see so much of it in bloom at this time of year, because usually when we visit in summer it has already finished flowering. I adore it, that shade of pink is such a wonderful colour against the blue of sea and sky.
It was easy walking along this stretch because the trail was more like a very narrow road so we didn't have to trudge all along the shingle beach. If you've ever walked on a shingle beach you will know how exhausting it is - you use the weirdest muscles that don't usually get much of a workout!
Walking along Chesil beach, we were actually walking part of the South West Coast Path. This is the longest National Trail in England and is 630 miles long (which blows my mind every time I think about it). I've walked a lot of the Dorset coast path over the years, but the SW trail takes in the coastlines of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall as well. I'd dearly love to walk more of it at some point in the future {*adds to Bucket List*}
Oh, more splashes of colour - this is the Yellow Horned Poppy, in case you wanted to know. I used to read seashore books as a child and have quite a bit of coastal nature knowledge tucked away in my brain.
Now this - this sight literally stopped me Dead. In. My. Tracks.
WOW, just wow.
Have you ever seen such glorious wild flowers by a beach??? Never have I seen these before, so as soon as I came back to the caravan I had a chat with Google to find out more.
May I present to you...... "Gladiolus communis" or wild gladiolus. There - now we know.
According to Google, this plant is an introduction from Mediterranean countries that grows on rough ground, particularly in the southwest. I can tell you it is StUnNinG.
The last part of our walk was an uphill jaunt through West Bexington village, and we were all fantasising about an ice cold drink at this point. The pub just so happened to be right there calling to us, so we took our weary feet straight into the garden and a round of drinks were bought. Mine was the tall golden one on the left - a pint of icy cold lager and lemonade, my goodness it tasted soooooo good.
Our walk was just a smidge short of ten miles and I honestly loved every single step of it. Love love loved it.
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